The Rule of Benedict Triptych (Brody Neuenschwander 2003)

Click on parts of the image for larger, more detailed images.

As a gift for his 50th birthday, some friends and relations of Fr Christopher Jamison offered to commission a work of art for Worth Abbey.

A world renowned calligrapher, Brody Neuenschwander, visited the monastery to present some samples of his work and explain his vision of calligraphy as an art form in which text and image are fused to create objects that walk a fine line between reading and seeing. It was decided that a work interpreting passages of the Rule of Benedict, would be made to hang over the fireplace in the recently refurbished Calefactory.

Early on, however, the artist conceived the idea of writing out the entire Rule as a sort of text icon. The first sketch presented by the artist was of a triptych of horizontal panels. Collage on wood panels was suggested, both as a reference to the icon tradition and as being able to withstand the heat of the wood burning stove below. The sketch was approved and the artist was given complete freedom to work out the triptych as he saw fit. In the end, he produced three very different panels which work together to produce an effect of contemplation and stillness.

The lowest panel contains the entire text of the Rule in black lettering, with chapter titles and ‘important’ texts in red or gold, arranged in 14 columns around three abstract graphics on a pale background. The script is easily legible, but so small that from any distance the columns of text become a kind of pattern. The viewer is able to see the entire Rule at a single glance and understand that this is the basis of the monastic life. Sweeping horizontally across the whole panel are the words: “Et de Dei misericordia numquam desperare” (RB Ch 4 v 74. “And never despair of God’s mercy”), the final meaning of all Christian life.

The middle panel picks up and repeats, unevenly, the opening words of the regular monastic liturgy of the Hours: “Deus in adiutorium meum intende, Domine ad adiuvandum me festina” (RB Ch 35 v 17. “God, come to my assistance; Lord, hasten to help me”) quoted from Ps 70:2. It is mostly in black, with white lettering stamped into it.

The upper panel evokes the divine presence with nine etherial figures praising God with various phrases from the Psalms e.g. “Oh the splendour of your glory”, “He, Yahweh, is merciful, very loving, slow to anger…”.

The “Triptych of the Rule” functions as an icon of the Rule, expresing the koinonia of the monastery, living out the Rule of Benedict in regular prayer in a divine context inspired by scripture. It successfully translates a text into a visual experience: text becomes texture becomes gesture. At the same time the triptych reminds those who come close enough to read, of their specific duties as Benedictine monks.

The artist himself installed it on 2nd March 2003 in the private sitting room of the monastery, known as the Calefactory (left).